State chief secretary, Benchilo Thong, on Friday formally launched the state mission on Government e-Marketplace (GeM) at Secretariat Conference Hall, Kohima. GeM is the national public procurement portal; an end-to-end online marketplace for central and state government ministries /departments, central & state public undertakings, autonomous institutions and local bodies, for procurement of common use goods and services in transparent and efficient manner.
Speaking at the launching programme, the chief secretary said that the workshop being carried out as part of the nationwide drive commenced on September 6 last and continue till October 17, 2018.
He said GeM portal was rapidly increasing its business since its inception with transacted business totaling to Rs.11,875.80 crore. GeM portal shows that 1,42,194 sellers and service providers were registered on the portal till date.
Thong maintained that workshop intends to create awareness about GeM, its benefits, and to bring on board sellers as well as buyers in order to avail the benefits of buying from a portal.
For government departments, GeM provides a huge advantage of offering a wide range of products and services along with the benefits of a transparent and easy procurement process.
The chief secretary requested all the administrative heads and heads of departments to actively consider maximum utilisation of the benefits offered by the portal so that the value of the funds placed at their disposal is multiplied.
Additional chief secretary & finance commissioner, Temjen Toy, said GeM was basically a procurement programme where the entire transaction is paperless.
He said the present system where the departments have to issue tenders take time, adding that the issue of transparency also comes in.
Stating that “GeM is here to stay”, Toy said that GeM would do away with bureaucracy of procurement and also simplify and speed up the process of procurement. “It is also our endeavour to encourage our local suppliers, till purchase of Rs. 50,000 you can buy from any seller beyond that you’ll have to select from the lowest bidder,” he said.
Further, Toy said it was made mandatory that procurement for ‘PoshanMaa’ programme in the state has to be done through GeM.
Envisaged by the Centre, GeM strives to keep pace with the ever-evolving technological challenges and stakeholder aspirations. The GeM portal is currently used by almost all departments/organisations of the Central Government. Organisations from 23 States/UTs are already using GeM. Government has made procurement of products and services available on GeM mandatory to all the central government ministries, departments and central government organisations. The General Financial Rules were amended in March 2017 and Rule 149 introduced in this regard.
At the launching programme, Deputy CEO GeM, Nirmal Kumar and Business Facilitator GeM, Raja were the resource persons.
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